The Cost of Poor Care: Multi-millions

When I saw a digital image of the Pontormo portrait of Cosimo I de Medici, which was up for sale at Christie’s yesterday, I fell in love with it. It’s a beautiful pose, a study in black. But then I heard from art historians about how abraded the surface was — some said they could not even stand to look at it.

And surely, the presale estimate was a giveaway: $300,000 to $500,000 for a Pontormo? It would, some experts said, be worth $30 million to $50 million if it were in good condition. The Metropolitan Museum doesn’t even own a Pontormo. The Getty paid more than $35 million in 1989 for Pontormo’s Portrait of a Halberdier — more than $65 million in today’s dollars.

Could varnish, retouching and other poor maintenance choices really destroy the picture that much? Who would do that?

Earlier this week, I went to Christie’s to see for myself — and while I can look at the picture, I did see the obvious problem. It’s flat and one can see the retouching brush strokes. Most of the damage, I was told, was done decades ago, not recently.

So I was very curious to see what happened at the sale. The hammer fell at $600,000 — and with premium the price was $725,000.

Yes indeed. There is famous Australian work by Arthur Streeton that is included in all the surveys etc that has a central small figure that one cannot believe the artist left that way. It’s so crudely finished, the fave and nose are just a couple of sharp strokes in the centre of a very nice impressionistic landscape. I complained to an art dealer friend and he went on at length about a certain restorer in Australia who is “ruining” pictures on a weekly basis and should be jailed he thought! It’s still going one out there it seems.

Judith H. Dobrzynski

Now an independent journalist, I've worked as a reporter in the culture and business sections of The New York Times, and been the editor of the Sunday business section and deputy business editor there... Read More…

Real Clear Arts

This blog is about culture in America as seen through my lens, which is informed and colored by years of reporting not only on the arts and … [Read More...]

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